Fitbit Makes First Super Bowl Appearance to Hype $200 Blaze

Focus on Differentiating From Wearables

Fitbit will make its first Super Bowl appearance this Sunday with a 30-second spot that aims to promote its Blaze fitness tracker.

The San-Francisco-based company only recently decided to advertise in the big game, Tim Rosa, VP-global marketing at Fitbit, told Ad Age. "We saw our Fitbit anthem advertisement perform extremely well throughout the AFC and NFC playoffs which further reinforced that professional sports, like football, is a relevant and great place for Fitbit to be," Mr. Rosa said. "Based on that success, and knowing that we were preparing to launch this amazing spot for Fitbit Blaze, we felt the time was right to take that leap into the big game. And we are thrilled to be there."

The commercial, produced by creative agency Argonaut, is the same as the one the wearable tech company shared during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. "Get Fit in Style" will air at the top of the third quarter during the Super Bowl, Fitbit said.

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The $200 fitness tracker has been viewed by many as a direct competitor to Apple's Watch, despite not offering the same smartwatch features. Fitbit also decided against advertising its newest watch, Alta, which was unveiled Wednesday, because it felt Blaze aligned more directly with the NFL's core audience. "Ultimately, we felt like there was no better setting to unveil our Blaze spot to the masses than on Sunday," Mr. Rosa said.

The video shows four people working out and going about with their everyday lives while wearing different bands. The company said one of the ways it will look to grow its business this year will be to sell more accessories for its products.

San Francisco-based Argonaut was created by alumni from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in 2013. The company launched Fitbit's first global campaign nearly a year later in November 2014.